Ouch

Part of speech: interjection

Pronunciation: /ˈaʊt͡ʃ/

Definitions

1. A sudden cry or exclamation made when experiencing pain or discomfort
2. A vocal reaction that signifies hurt or distress from a physical or emotional source
3. An utterance used to show that something has caused pain or an unpleasant feeling

Etymology: The interjection "ouch" is one of those words whose origin is genuinely unsettled. One account traces it to German "autsch," with a possible route through Pennsylvania German "outch," a "cry of pain." Early recorded uses of the interjection do cluster in Pennsylvania, and it is first attested in the 1830s, specifically in American English, which supports that link. The complication is that exclamations of pain are almost universal and tend to appear in writing long before anyone records them as words. Some scholars regard "ouch" as just such a natural cry, attested since the mid-1600s. The strongest piece of evidence for that older view is a verb form: the 1933 Oxford English Dictionary cites "ouching" from 1654, in a line describing Sancho Panza running about the mountain "like a ranck-Asse." That usage suggests the sound was already being turned into a verb in the seventeenth century, which would predate the American records.

Synonyms: ow, ouchie